among barbarous[2265] nations, and one which distinguishes[2266] the
wealthy from the multitude at large. It is mostly made from cows’
milk, and hence its name;[2267] but the richest butter is that made
from ewes’ milk. There is a butter made also from goats’ milk; but
previously to making it, the milk should first be warmed, in winter. In
summer it is extracted from the milk by merely shaking it to and fro
in a tall vessel, with a small orifice at the mouth to admit the air,
but otherwise closely stopped, a little water[2268] being added to make
it curdle the sooner. The milk that curdles the most, floats upon the
surface; this they remove, and, adding salt to it, give it the name of
“oxygala.”[2269] They then take the remaining part and boil it down in
pots, and that portion of it which floats on the surface is butter,
a substance of an oily nature. The more[2270] rank it is in smell,
the more highly it is esteemed. When old, it forms an ingredient in
numerous compositions. It is of an astringent, emollient, repletive,
and purgative nature.
CHAP. 36.—OXYGALA: ONE REMEDY.
Oxygala, too, is prepared another way, sour milk being added to
the fresh milk which is wanted to curdle. This preparation is
extremely wholesome to the stomach: of its properties we shall have
occasion[2271] to speak in another place.
CHAP. 37.—THE VARIOUS USES OF FAT AND OBSERVATIONS UPON IT, FIFTY-TWO
IN NUMBER.
Among the remedies common to living creatures, fat is the substance
held in the next highest esteem, that of swine in particular, which
was employed by the ancients for certain religious purposes even: at
all events, it is still the usage for the newly-wedded bride, when
entering her husband’s house, to touch the door-posts with it. There
are two methods of keeping hogs’ lard, either salted or fresh; indeed,
the older it is, the better. The Greek writers have now given it the
name of “axungia,”[2272] or axle-grease, in their works. Nor, in fact,
is it any secret, why swine’s fat should be possessed of such marked
properties, seeing that the animal feeds to such a great extent upon
the roots of plants—owing too, to which, its dung is applied to such
a vast number of purposes. It will be as well, therefore, to promise,
that I shall here speak only of the hog that feeds in the open field,
and no other; of which kind it is the female that is much the most
useful—if she has never farrowed, more particularly. But it is the fat
of the wild boar that is held in by far the highest esteem of all.
The distinguishing properties, then, of swine’s-grease, are emollient,
calorific, resolvent, and detergent. Some physicians recommend it as
an ointment for the gout, mixed with goose-grease, bull-suet, and
wool-grease: in cases, however, where the pain is persistent, it should
be used in combination with wax, myrtle, resin, and pitch. Hogs’ lard
is used fresh for the cure of burns, and of blains, too, caused by
snow: with ashes of burnt barley and nutgalls, in equal proportions,
it is employed for the cure of chilblains. It is good also for
excoriations of the limbs, and for dispelling weariness and lassitude
arising from long journeys. For the cure of chronic cough, new lard
is boiled down, in the proportion of three ounces to three cyathi of
wine, some honey being added to the mixture. Old lard too, if it has
been kept without salt, made up into pills and taken internally, is a
cure for phthisis: but it is a general rule not to use it salted in
any cases except where detergents are required, or where there are no
symptoms of ulceration. For the cure of phthisis, some persons boil
down three ounces of hogs’ lard and honied wine, in three cyathi of
ordinary wine; and after swathing the sides, chest, and shoulders of
the patient with compresses steeped in the preparation, administer to
him, every four days, some tar with an egg: indeed, so potent is this
composition, that if it is only attached to the knees even, the flavour
of it will ascend to the mouth, and the patient will appear to spit it
out,[2273] as it were.
The grease of a sow that has never farrowed, is the most useful of all
cosmetics for the skin of females; but in all cases, hogs’ lard is
good for the cure of itch-scab, mixed with pitch and beef-suet in the
proportion of one-third, the whole being made lukewarm for the purpose.
Fresh hogs’ lard, applied as a pessary, imparts nutriment to the infant
in the womb, and prevents abortion. Mixed with white lead or litharge,
it restores scars to their natural colour; and, in combination with
sulphur, it rectifies malformed nails. It prevents the hair also
from falling off; and, applied with a quarter of a nutgall, it heals
ulcers upon the head in females. When well smoked, it strengthens the
eyelashes. Lard is recommended also for phthisis, boiled down with
old wine, in the proportion of one ounce to a semisextarius, till
only three ounces are left; some persons add a little honey to the
composition. Mixed with lime, it is used as a liniment for inflamed
tumours, boils, and indurations of the mamillæ: it is curative also of
ruptures, convulsions, cramps, and sprains. Used with white hellebore,
it is good for corns, chaps, and callosities; and, with pounded
earthenware[2274] which has held salted provisions, for imposthumes of
the parotid glands and scrofulous sores. Employed as a friction in the
bath, it removes itching sensations and pimples: but for the treatment
of gout there is another method of preparing it, by mixing it with old
oil, and adding pounded sarcophagus[2275] stone and cinquefoil bruised
in wine, or else with lime or ashes. A peculiar kind of plaster is
also made of it for the cure of inflammatory ulcers, seventy-five
denarii of hogs’ lard being mixed with one hundred of litharge.
It is reckoned a very good plan also to anoint ulcers with boars’
grease, and, if they are of a serpiginous nature, to add resin to the
liniment. The ancients used to employ hogs’ lard in particular for
greasing the axles of their vehicles, that the wheels might revolve
the more easily, and to this, in fact, it owes its name of “axungia.”
When hogs’ lard has been used for this purpose, incorporated as it is
with the rust of the iron upon the wheels, it is remarkably useful as
an application for diseases of the rectum and of the generative organs.
The ancient physicians, too, set a high value upon the medicinal
properties of hogs’ lard in an unmixed state: separating it from the
kidneys, and carefully removing the veins, they used to wash and rub it
well in rain water, after which they boiled it several times in a new
earthen vessel, and then put it by for keeping. It is generally agreed
that it is more emollient, calorific, and resolvent, when salted; and
that it is still more useful when it has been rinsed in wine.
Massurius informs us, that the ancients set the highest value of all
upon the fat of the wolf: and that it was for this reason that the
newly-wedded bride used to anoint the door-posts of her husband’s house
with it, in order that no noxious spells might find admittance.
CHAP. 38.—SUET.
Corresponding with the grease of the swine, is the suet[2276] that is
found in the ruminating animals, a substance employed in other ways,
but no less efficacious in its properties. The proper mode of preparing
it, in all cases, is to take out the veins and to rinse it in sea or
salt-water, after which it is beaten up in a mortar, with a sprinkling
of sea-water in it. This done, it is boiled in several waters, until,
in fact, it has lost all smell, and is then bleached by continual
exposure to the sun; that of the most esteemed quality being the fat
which grows about the kidneys. In case stale suet is required for any
medicinal purpose, it is recommended to melt it first, and then to wash
it in cold water several times; after which, it must again be melted
with a sprinkling of the most aromatic wine that can be procured, it
being then boiled again and again, until the rank smell has totally
disappeared.
Many persons recommend that the fat of bulls, lions, panthers, and
camels, in particular, should be thus prepared. As to the various uses
to which these substances are applied, we shall mention them on the
appropriate occasions.
CHAP. 39.—MARROW.
Common too, to all these animals, is marrow; a substance which in all
cases is possessed of certain emollient, expletive, desiccative, and
calorific properties. The most highly esteemed of all is deer’s marrow,
the next best being that of the calf, and then that of the goat, both
male and female. These substances are prepared before autumn, by
washing them in a fresh state, and drying them in the shade; after
which they are passed through a sieve, and then strained through linen,
and put by in earthen pots for keeping, in a cool spot.
CHAP. 40.—GALL.
But among the substances which are furnished in common by the various
animals, it is the gall, we may say, that is the most efficacious of
all. The properties of this substance are of a calorific, pungent,
resolvent, extractive, and dispersive nature. The gall of the smaller
animals is looked upon as the most penetrating; for which reason
it is that it is generally considered the most efficacious for the
composition of eye-salves. Bull’s gall is possessed of a remarkable
degree of potency, having the effect of imparting a golden tint to the
surface of copper even and to vessels made of other metals. Gall in
every case is prepared in the following manner: it is taken fresh, and
the orifice of the vesicle in which it is contained being tied fast
with a strong linen thread, it is left to steep for half an hour in
boiling water; after which it is dried in the shade, and then put away
for keeping, in honey.
That of the horse is condemned, being reckoned among the poisons only.
Hence it is that the Flamen[2277] of the Sacrifices is not allowed
to touch a horse, notwithstanding that it is the custom to immolate
one[2278] of these animals at the public sacrifices at Rome.
CHAP. 41.—BLOOD.
The blood, also, of the horse is possessed of certain corrosive
properties; and so, too, is mare’s blood—except, indeed, where the
animal has not been covered—it having the effect of cauterizing the
margins of ulcers, and so enlarging them. Bull’s blood too, taken
fresh, is reckoned[2279] among the poisons; except, indeed, at
Ægira,[2280] at which place the priestess of the Earth, when about to
foretell coming events, takes a draught of bull’s blood before she
descends into the cavern: so powerful, in fact, is the agency of that
sympathy so generally spoken of, that it may occasionally originate, we
find, in feelings of religious awe,[2281] or in the peculiar nature of
the locality.
Drusus,[2282] the tribune of the people, drank goats’ blood, it is
said; it being his object by his pallid looks to suggest that his
enemy, Q. Cæpio, had given him poison, and so expose him to public
hatred. So remarkably powerful is the blood of the he-goat, that there
is nothing better in existence for sharpening iron implements, the rust
produced by this blood giving them a better edge even than a file.
Considering, however, that the blood of all animals cannot be reckoned
as a remedy in common, will it not be advisable, in preference, to
speak of the effects that are produced by that of each kind?
CHAP. 42.—PECULIAR REMEDIES DERIVED FROM VARIOUS ANIMALS, AND
CLASSIFIED ACCORDING TO THE MALADIES. REMEDIES AGAINST THE POISON OF
SERPENTS, DERIVED FROM THE STAG, THE FAWN, THE OPHION, THE SHE-GOAT,
THE KID, AND THE ASS.
We will therefore classify the various remedies, according to the
maladies for which they are respectively used; and, first of all, those
to which man has recourse for injuries inflicted by serpents. That
deer are destructive to those reptiles[2283] no one is ignorant; as
also of the fact that they drag them from their holes when they find
them, and so devour them. And it is not only while alive and breathing
that deer are thus fatal to serpents, but even when dead and separated
limb from limb. The fumes of their horns, while burning, will drive
away serpents, as already[2284] stated; but the bones, it is said, of
the upper part of a stag’s throat, if burnt upon a fire, will bring
those reptiles together. Persons may sleep upon a deer’s skin in
perfect safety, and without any apprehension of attacks by serpents;
its rennet too, taken with vinegar, is an effectual antidote to the
stings of those reptiles; indeed, if it has been only touched by a
person, he will be for that day effectually protected from them. The
testes, dried, or the genitals of the male animal, are considered to be
very wholesome, taken in wine, and so are the umbles, generally known
as the “centipellio.”[2285] Persons having about them a deer’s tooth,
or who have taken the precaution of rubbing the body with a deer or
fawn’s marrow, will be sure to repel the attacks of all serpents.
But the most effectual remedy of all is thought to be the rennet of a
fawn that has been cut from the uterus of the dam, as already[2286]
mentioned in another place. Deer’s blood, burnt upon a fire of lentisk
wood, with dracontium,[2287] cunilago,[2288] and alkanet, will attract
serpents, they say; while, on the other hand, if the blood is removed
and pyrethrum[2289] substituted for it, they will take to flight.
I find an animal mentioned by Greek writers, smaller than the stag,
but resembling it in the hair, and to which they give the name of
“ophion.”[2290] Sardinia, they say, is the only country that produces
it; I am of opinion, however, that it is now extinct, and for that
reason I shall not enlarge upon its medicinal properties.
(10.) As a preservative against the attacks of serpents, the brains and
blood of the wild boar are held in high esteem: the liver also, dried
and taken in wine with rue; and the fat, used with honey and resin.
Similar properties are attributed to the liver of the domesticated
boar and the outer filaments, and those only, of the gall, these last
being taken in doses of four denarii; the brains also, taken in wine,
are equally effectual. The fumes of the burning horns or hair of a
she-goat will repel serpents, they say: the ashes, too, of the horns,
used either internally or externally, are thought to be an antidote to
their poison. A similar effect is attributed to goats’ milk, taken with
Taminian[2291] grapes; to the urine of those animals, taken with squill
vinegar; to goats’ milk cheese, applied with origanum;[2292] and to
goat suet, used with wax.
In addition to all this, as will be seen hereafter, there are a
thousand other remedial properties attributed to this animal; a fact
which surprises me all the more, seeing that the goat, it is said, is
never free from fever.[2293] The wild animals of the same species,
which are very numerous, as already[2294] stated, have a still greater
efficacy attributed to them; but the he-goat has certain properties
peculiar to itself, and Democritus attributes properties still more
powerful to the animal when it has been the only one yeaned. It is
recommended also to apply she-goat’s dung, boiled[2295] in vinegar, to
injuries inflicted by serpents, as also the ashes of fresh dung mixed
with wine. As a general rule, persons who find that they are recovering
but slowly from injuries inflicted by a serpent, will find their
health more speedily re-established by frequenting the stalls where
goats are kept. Those, however, whose object is a more assured remedy,
attach immediately to the wound the paunch of a she-goat killed for
the purpose, dung and all. Others, again, use the flesh of a kid just
killed, and fumigate it with the singed hair, the smell of which has
the effect of repelling serpents.
For stings of serpents, as also for injuries inflicted by the scorpion
and shrew-mouse, some employ the skin of a goat newly killed, as also
the flesh and dung of a horse that has been out at pasture, or a hare’s
rennet in vinegar. They say, too, that if a person has the body well
rubbed with a hare’s rennet, he will never receive injury from venomous
animals. When a person has been stung by a scorpion, she-goat’s dung,
boiled with vinegar, is considered a most efficient remedy: in cases
too, where a buprestis has been swallowed, bacon and the broth in which
it has been boiled, are highly efficacious. Nay, what is even more than
this, if a person applies his mouth to an ass’s ear, and says that he
has been stung by a scorpion, the whole of the poison, they say, will
immediately pass away from him and be transferred to the animal. All
venomous creatures, it is said, are put to flight by a fumigation made
by burning an ass’s lights. It is considered an excellent plan too, to
fumigate persons, when stung by a scorpion, with the smoke of burnt
calves’ dung.
CHAP. 43.—REMEDIES FOR THE BITE OF THE MAD DOG. REMEDIES DERIVED FROM
THE CALF, THE HE-GOAT, AND VARIOUS OTHER ANIMALS.
When a person has been bitten by a mad dog, it is the practice to make
an incision round the wound to the quick, and then to apply raw veal to
it, and to make the patient take either veal broth or hogs’ lard, mixed
with lime internally. Some persons recommend a he-goat’s liver, and
maintain that if it is applied to the wound the patient will never be
attacked with hydrophobia. She-goat’s dung, too, is highly spoken of,
applied with wine, as also the dung of the badger, cuckoo, and swallow,
boiled and taken in drink.
For bites inflicted by other animals, dried goats’ milk cheese is
applied with origanum and taken with the drink; and for injuries caused
by the human[2296] teeth, boiled beef is applied; veal, however, is
still more efficacious for the purpose, provided it is not removed
before the end of four days.
CHAP. 44.—REMEDIES TO BE ADOPTED AGAINST ENCHANTMENTS.
The dried muzzle of a wolf, they say, is an effectual preservative
against the malpractices of magic; and it is for this reason that it is
so commonly to be seen fastened to the doors of farm-houses. A similar
degree of efficacy, it is thought, belongs to the skin of the neck,
when taken whole from the animal. Indeed, so powerful is the influence
of this animal, in addition to what we have already[2297] stated,
that if a horse only treads in its track, it will be struck with
torpor[2298] in consequence.
CHAP. 45.—REMEDIES FOR POISONS.
In case where persons have swallowed quicksilver,[2299] bacon is the
proper remedy to be employed. Poisons are neutralized by taking asses’
milk; henbane more particularly, mistletoe, hemlock, the flesh of the
sea-hare, opocarpathon,[2300] pharicon,[2301] and dorycnium:[2302]
the same, too, where coagulated milk[2303] has been productive of bad
effects, for the biestings,[2304] or first curdled milk, should be
reckoned as nothing short of a poison.[2305] We shall have to mention
many other uses to which asses’ milk is applied; but it should be
remembered that in all cases it must be used fresh, or, if not, as new
as possible, and warmed, for there is nothing that more speedily loses
its virtue. The bones, too, of the ass are pounded and boiled, as an
antidote to the poison of the sea-hare. The wild ass[2306] is possessed
of similar properties in every respect, but in a much higher degree.
Of the wild horse[2307] the Greek writers have made no mention, it
not being a native of their country; we have every reason to believe,
however, that it has the same properties as the animal in a tame state,
but much more fully developed. Mares’ milk effectually neutralizes the
venom of the sea-hare and all narcotic poisons. Nor had the Greeks
any knowledge from experience of the urus[2308] and the bison,[2308]
although in India the forests are filled with herds of wild oxen: it
is only reasonable, however, to conclude that all their medicinal
properties must be much more highly developed than in the animal as
found among us. It is asserted also, that cows’ milk is a general
counter-poison, in the cases above-mentioned, more particularly, as
also where the poison of ephemeron[2309] has settled internally, or
cantharides have been administered; it acting upon the poison by
vomit. Broth, too, made from goats’ flesh, neutralizes the effects
of cantharides, in a similar manner, it is said. To counteract the
corrosive poisons which destroy by ulceration, veal or beef-suet is
resorted to; and in cases where a leech has been swallowed, butter is
the usual remedy, with vinegar heated with a red-hot iron. Indeed,
butter employed by itself is a good remedy for poisons, for where
oil is not to be procured, it is an excellent substitute for it.
Used with honey, butter heals injuries inflicted by millepedes. The
broth of boiled tripe, it is thought, is an effectual repellent of
the above-mentioned poisons, aconite and hemlock more particularly;
veal-suet also has a similar repute.
Fresh goats’ milk cheese is given to persons who have taken mistletoe,
and goats’ milk itself is a remedy for cantharides. Taken with
Taminian[2310] grapes, goats’ milk is an antidote to the effects of
ephemeron. Goats’ blood, boiled down with the marrow, is used as
a remedy for the narcotic[2311] poisons, and kids’ blood for the
other poisons. Kid’s rennet is administered where persons have taken
mistletoe, the juice of the white chamæleon,[2312] or bull’s blood; for
which last, hare’s rennet in vinegar is also used by way of antidote.
For injuries inflicted by the pastinaca,[2313] and the stings or bites
of all kinds of marine animals, hare’s rennet, kid’s rennet, or lamb’s
rennet is taken, in doses of one drachma, in wine. Hare’s rennet, too,
generally forms an ingredient in the antidotes for poisons.
The moth that is seen fluttering about the flame of a lamp is generally
reckoned in the number of the noxious substances: its bad effects
are neutralized by the agency of goat’s liver. Goat’s gall, too, is
looked upon as an antidote to venomous preparations from the field
weazel.[2314] But we will now return to the other remedies, classified
according to the various diseases.
CHAP. 46. (11.)—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE HEAD, AND FOR ALOPECY.
Bears’ grease,[2315] mixed with ladanum[2316] and the plant
adiantum,[2317] prevents the hair from falling off; it is a cure also
for alopecy and defects in the eyebrows, mixed with the fungus from
the wick of a lamp, and the soot that is found in the nozzle. Used
with wine, it is good for the cure of porrigo, a malady which is also
treated with the ashes of deer’s horns in wine: this last substance
also prevents the growth of vermin in the hair. For porrigo some
persons employ goat’s gall, in combination with Cimolian chalk and
vinegar, leaving the preparation to dry for a time on the head. Sow’s
gall, too, mixed with bull’s urine, is employed for a similar purpose;
and when old, it is an effectual cure, with the addition of sulphur,
for furfuraceous eruptions. The ashes, it is thought, of an ass’s
genitals, will make the hair grow more thickly, and prevent it from
turning grey; the proper method of applying it being to shave the head
and to pound the ashes in a leaden mortar with oil. Similar effects are
attributed to the genitals of an ass’s foal, reduced to ashes and mixed
with urine; some nard being added to render the mixture less offensive.
In cases of alopecy the part affected is rubbed with bull’s gall,
warmed with Egyptian alum. Running ulcers of the head are successfully
treated with bull’s urine, or stale human urine, in combination with
cyclaminos[2318] and sulphur: but the most effectual remedy is calf’s
gall, a substance which, heated with vinegar, has also the effect
of exterminating lice. Veal suet, pounded with salt and applied to
ulcers of the head, is a very useful remedy: the fat, too, of the fox
is highly spoken of, but the greatest value is set upon cats’ dung,
applied in a similar manner with mustard.
Powdered goats’ horns, or the horns reduced to ashes, those of the
he-goat in particular, with the addition of nitre, tamarisk-seed,
butter, and oil, are remarkably effectual for preventing the hair from
coming off, the head being first shaved for the purpose. So too, the
ashes of burnt goats’ flesh, applied the eye-brows with oil, impart
to them a black tint. By using goats’ milk, they say, lice may be
exterminated; and the dung of those animals, with honey, is thought to
be a cure for alopecy: the ashes, too, of the hoofs, mixed with pitch,
prevent the hair from coming off.
The ashes of a burnt hare, mixed with oil of myrtle, alleviate
head-ache, the patient drinking some water that has been left in the
trough after an ox or ass has been drinking there. The male organs of a
fox, worn as an amulet, are productive, if we choose to believe it, of
a similar effect: the same, too, with the ashes of a burnt deer’s horn,
applied with vinegar, rose oil, or oil of iris.
CHAP. 47.—REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE EYES.
For defluxions[2319] of the eyes, beef suet, boiled with oil, is
applied to the parts affected; and for eruptions of those organs, ashes
of burnt deer’s horns are similarly employed, the tips of the horns
being considered the most effectual for the purpose. For the cure of
cataract, it is reckoned a good plan to apply a wolf’s excrements: the
same substance, too, reduced to ashes, is used for the dispersion of
films, in combination with Attic honey. Bear’s gall, too, is similarly
employed; and for the cure of epinyctis, wild boar’s lard, mixed with
oil of roses, is thought to be very useful. An ass’s hoof, reduced to
ashes and applied with asses’ milk, is used for the removal of marks in
the eyes and indurations of the crystalline humours. Beef marrow, from
the right fore leg, beaten up with soot, is employed for affections of
the eyebrows, and for diseases of the eyelids and corners of the eyes.
For the same purpose, also, a sort of calliblepharon[2320] is prepared
from soot, the best of all being that made from a wick of papyrus mixed
with oil of sesame; the soot being removed with a feather and caught
in a new vessel prepared for the purpose. This mixture, too, is very
efficacious for preventing superfluous eyelashes from growing again
when once pulled out.
Bull’s gall is made up into eye-salves[2321] with white of egg, these
salves being steeped in water and applied to the eyes for four days
successively. Veal suet, with goose-grease and the extracted juice of
ocimum, is remarkably good for diseases of the eye-lids. Veal marrow,
with the addition of an equal proportion of wax and oil or oil of
roses, an egg being added to the mixture, is used as a liniment for
indurations of the eye-lids. Soft goats’ milk cheese is used as an
application, with warm water, to allay defluxions of the eyes; but when
they are attended with swelling, honey is used instead of the water.
In both cases, however, the eyes should be fomented with warm whey. In
cases of dry ophthalmia, it is found a very useful plan to take the
muscles[2322] lying within a loin of pork, and, after reducing them to
ashes, to pound and apply them to the part affected.
She-goats, they say, are never affected with ophthalmia, from the
circumstance that they browse upon certain kinds of herbs: the same,
too, with the gazelle. Hence it is that we find it recommended, at the
time of new moon, to swallow the dung of these animals, coated with
wax. As they are able to see, too, by night, it is a general belief
that the blood of a he-goat is a cure for those persons affected
with dimness of sight to whom the Greeks have given the name of
“nyctalopes.”[2323] A similar virtue is attributed to the liver of a
she-goat, boiled in astringent wine. Some are in the habit of rubbing
the eyes with the thick gravy[2324] which exudes from a she-goat’s
liver roasted, or with the gall of that animal: they recommend the
flesh also as a diet, and say that the patient should expose his eyes
to the fumes of it while boiling: it is a general opinion, too, that
the animal should be of a reddish colour. Another prescription is, to
fumigate the eyes with the steam arising from the liver boiled in an
earthen jar, or, according to some authorities, roasted.
Goats’ gall is applied for numerous purposes: with honey, for films
upon the eyes; with one-third part of white hellebore, for cataract;
with wine, for spots upon the eyes, indurations of the cornea, films,
webs, and argema; with extracted juice of cabbage, for diseases of the
eyelids, the hairs being first pulled out, and the preparation left to
dry on the parts affected; and with woman’s milk, for rupture of the
coats of the eye. For all these purposes, the gall is considered the
most efficacious, when dried. Nor is the dung of this animal held in
disesteem, being applied with honey for defluxions of the eyes. The
marrow, too, of a goat, or a hare’s lights, we find used for pains in
the eyes; and the gall of a goat, with raisin wine or honey, for the
dispersion of films upon those organs. It is recommended also, for
ophthalmia, to anoint the eyes with wolf’s fat or swine’s marrow: we
find it asserted, too, that persons who carry a wolf’s tongue, inserted
in a bracelet, will always be exempt from ophthalmia.
CHAP. 48.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES AND AFFECTIONS OF THE EARS.
Pains and diseases of the ears are cured by using the urine of a wild
boar, kept in a glass vessel, or the gall of a wild boar, swine, or
ox, mixed with castor-oil and oil of roses in equal proportions. But
the best remedy of all is bull’s gall, warmed with leek juice, or with
honey, if there is any suppuration. Bull’s gall too, warmed by itself
in a pomegranate rind, is an excellent remedy for offensive exhalations
from the ears: in combination with woman’s milk, it is efficacious
as a cure for ruptures of those organs. Some persons are of opinion
that it is a good plan to wash the ears with this preparation in cases
where the hearing is affected; while others again, after washing the
ears with warm water, insert a mixture composed of the old slough of a
serpent and vinegar, wrapped up in a dossil of wool. In cases, however,
where the deafness is very considerable, gall warmed in a pomegranate
rind with myrrh and rue, is injected into the ears; sometimes, also,
fat bacon is used for this purpose, or fresh asses’ dung, mixed with
oil of roses: in all cases, however, the ingredients should be warmed.
The foam from a horse’s mouth is better still, or the ashes of fresh
horse dung, mixed with oil of roses: fresh butter too is good;
beef-suet mixed with goose-grease; the urine of a bull or she-goat; or
fullers’ lant, heated to such a degree that the steam escapes by the
neck of the vessel. For this purpose also, one third part of vinegar
is mixed with a small portion of the urine of a calf, which has not
begun to graze. They apply also to the ears calf’s dung, mixed with the
gall of that animal and sloughs of serpents, care being taken to warm
the ears before the application, and all the remedies being wrapped in
wool. Veal-suet, too, is used, with goose-grease and extract of ocimum;
or else veal marrow, mixed with bruised cummin and injected into the
ears. For pains in the ears, the liquid ejected by a boar in copulation
is used, due care being taken to receive it before it falls to the
ground. For fractures of the ears, a glutinous composition is made
from the genitals of a calf, which is dissolved in water when used;
and for other diseases of those organs, foxes’ fat is employed, goat’s
gall mixed with rose-oil warmed, or else extracted juice of leeks:
in all cases where there is any rupture, these preparations are used
in combination with woman’s milk. Where a patient is suffering from
hardness of hearing, ox-gall is employed, with the urine of a he or
she-goat; the same, too, where there is any suppuration.
Whatever the purpose for which they are wanted, it is the general
opinion that these substances are more efficacious when they have been
smoked in a goat’s horn for twenty days. Hare’s rennet, too, is highly
spoken of, taken in Aminean[2325] wine, in the proportion of one third
of a denarius of rennet to one half of a denarius of sacopenum.[2326]
Bears’ grease, mixed with equal proportions of wax and bull-suet,
is a cure for imposthumes of the parotid glands: some persons add
hypocisthis[2327] to the composition, or else content themselves with
employing butter only, after first fomenting the parts affected with
a decoction of fenugreek, the good effects of which are augmented
by strychnos. The testes, too, of the fox, are very useful for this
purpose; as also bull’s blood, dried and reduced to powder. She-goats’
urine, made warm, is used as an injection for the ears; and a liniment
is made of the dung of those animals, in combination with axle-grease.
CHAP. 49.—REMEDIES FOR TOOTH-ACHE.
The ashes of deer’s horns strengthen loose teeth and allay tooth-ache,
used either as a friction or as a gargle. Some persons, however, are
of opinion that the horn, unburnt and reduced to powder, is still more
efficacious for all these purposes. Dentifrices are made both from
the powder and the ashes. Another excellent remedy is a wolf’s head,
reduced to ashes: it is a well-known fact, too, that there are bones
generally found in the excrements of that animal; these bones, attached
to the body as an amulet, are productive of advantageous effects. For
the cure of tooth-ache, hare’s rennet is injected into the ear: the
head also of that animal, reduced to ashes, is used in the form of a
dentifrice, and, with the addition of nard, is a corrective of bad
breath. Some persons, however, think it a better plan to mix the ashes
of a mouse’s head with the dentifrice. In the side of the hare there
is a bone found, similar to a needle in appearance: for the cure of
tooth-ache it is recommended to scarify the gums with this bone. The
pastern-bone of an ox, ignited and applied to loose teeth which ache,
has the effect of strengthening them in the sockets; the same bone,
reduced to ashes, and mixed with myrrh, is also used as a dentifrice.
The ashes of burnt pig’s feet are productive of a similar effect, as
also the calcined bones of the cotyloïd cavities in which the hip-bones
move. It is a well-known fact, that, introduced into the throat of
beasts of burden, these bones are a cure for worms, and that, in a
calcined state, they are good for strengthening the teeth.
When the teeth have been loosened by a blow,[2328] they are
strengthened by using asses’ milk, or else ashes of the burnt teeth
of that animal, or a horse’s lichen, reduced to powder, and injected
into the ear with oil. By lichen[2329] I do not mean the hippomanes,
a noxious substance which I purposely forbear to enlarge upon, but an
excrescence which forms upon the knees of horses, and just above the
hoofs. In the heart[2330] of this animal there is also found a bone
which bears a close resemblance to the eye-teeth of a dog: if the gums
are scarified with this bone, or with a tooth taken from the jaw-bone
of a dead horse, corresponding in place with the tooth affected, the
pain will be removed, they say. Anaxilaüs assures us that if the
liquid which exudes from a mare when covered, is ignited on the wick
of a lamp, it will give out a most marvellous representation[2331] of
horses’ heads; and the same with reference to the she-ass. As to the
hippomanes, it is possessed of properties so virulent and so truly
magical, that if it is only thrown into fused metal[2332] which is
being cast into the resemblance of an Olympian mare, it will excite in
all stallions that approach it a perfect frenzy for copulation.
Another remedy for diseases of the teeth is joiners’ glue, boiled in
water and applied, care being taken to remove it very speedily, and
instantly to rinse the teeth with wine in which sweet pomegranate-rind
has been boiled. It is considered, also, a very efficacious remedy to
wash the teeth with goats’ milk, or bull’s gall. The pastern-bones of
a she-goat just killed, reduced to ashes, and indeed, to avoid the
necessity for repetition, of any other four-footed beast reared in the
farm-yard, are considered to make an excellent dentifrice.
CHAP. 50. (12.)—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE FACE.
It is generally believed that asses’ milk effaces wrinkles in the face,
renders the skin more delicate, and preserves its whiteness: and it is
a well-known fact, that some women are in the habit of washing their
face with it seven[2333] hundred times daily, strictly observing that
number. Poppæa, the wife of the Emperor Nero, was the first to practise
this; indeed, she had sitting-baths, prepared solely with asses’ milk,
for which purpose whole troops of she-asses[2334] used to attend her
on her journies.[2335] Purulent eruptions on the face are removed by
an application of butter, but white lead, mixed with the butter, is an
improvement. Pure butter, alone, is used for serpiginous eruptions of
the face, a layer of barley-meal being powdered over it. The caul of a
cow that has just calved, is applied, while still moist, to ulcers of
the face.
The following recipe may seem frivolous, but still, to please the
women,[2336] it must not be omitted; the pastern-bone of a white
steer, they say, boiled forty days and forty nights, till it is quite
dissolved, and then applied to the face in a linen cloth, will remove
wrinkles and preserve the whiteness of the skin. An application of
bull’s dung, they say, will impart a rosy tint to the cheeks, and not
crocodilea[2337] even is better for the purpose; the face, however,
must be washed with cold water, both before and after the application.
Sun-burns and all other discolorations of the skin, are removed by the
aid of calves’ dung kneaded up by hand with oil and gum; ulcerations
and chaps of the mouth, by an application of veal or beef-suet, mixed
with goose-grease and juice of ocimum. There is another composition,
also, made of veal-suet with stag’s marrow and leaves of white-thorn,
the whole beaten up together. Marrow, too, mixed with resin, even if
it be cow marrow only, is equally good; and the broth of cow-beef is
productive of similar effects. A most excellent remedy for lichens on
the face is a glutinous substance prepared from the genitals of a male
calf, melted with vinegar and live sulphur, and stirred together with
the branch of a fig-tree: this composition is applied twice a day,
and should be used quite fresh. This glue, similarly prepared from a
decoction of honey and vinegar, is a cure for leprous spots, which are
also removed by applying a he-goat’s liver warm.
Elephantiasis, too, is removed by an application of goats’ gall; and
leprous spots and furfuraceous eruptions by employing bull’s gall with
the addition of nitre, or else asses’ urine about the rising of the
Dog-star. Spots on the face are removed by either bull’s gall or ass’s
gall diluted in water by itself, care being taken to avoid the sun or
wind after the skin has peeled off. A similar effect is produced, also,
by using bull’s gall or calf’s gall, in combination with seed of cunila
and the ashes of a deer’s horn, burnt at the rising of Canicula.
Asses’ fat, in particular, restores the natural colour to scars and
spots on the skin caused by lichen or leprosy. A he-goat’s gall, mixed
with cheese, live sulphur, and sponge reduced to ashes, effectually
removes freckles, the composition being brought to the consistency of
honey before being applied. Some persons, however, prefer using dried
gall, and mix with it warm bran, in the proportion of one obolus to
four oboli of honey, the spots being rubbed briskly first. He-goat
suet, too, is highly efficacious, used in combination with gith,
sulphur, and iris; this mixture being also employed, with goose-grease,
stag’s marrow, resin, and lime, for the cure of cracked lips. I find it
stated by certain authors, that persons who have freckles on the skin
are looked upon as disqualified from taking any part in the sacrifices
prescribed by the magic art.
CHAP. 51.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE TONSILLARY GLANDS, AND FOR
SCROFULA.
Cow’s milk or goat’s milk is good for ulcerations of the tonsillary
glands and of the trachea. It is used in the form of a gargle, warm
from the udder or heated, goat’s milk being the best, boiled with
mallows and a little salt. A broth made from tripe is an excellent
gargle for ulcerations of the tongue and trachea; and for diseases of
the tonsillary glands, the kidneys of a fox are considered a sovereign
remedy, dried and beaten up with honey, and applied externally. For
quinzy, bull’s gall or goat’s gall is used, mixed with honey. A
badger’s liver, taken in water, is good for offensive breath, and
butter has a healing effect upon ulcerations of the mouth. When a
pointed or other substance has stuck in the throat, by rubbing it
externally with cats’ dung, the substance, they say, will either come
up again or pass downwards into the stomach.
Scrofulous sores are dispersed by applying the gall of a wild boar or
of an ox, warmed for the purpose: but it is only when the sores are
ulcerated that hare’s rennet is used, applied in a linen cloth with
wine. The ashes of the burnt hoof of an ass or horse, applied with oil
or water, is good for dispersing scrofulous sores; warmed urine also;
the ashes of an ox’s hoof, taken in water; cow-dung, applied hot with
vinegar; goat-suet with lime; goats’ dung, boiled in vinegar; or the
testes of a fox. Soap,[2338] too, is very useful for this purpose, an
invention of the Gauls for giving a reddish[2339] tint to the hair.
This substance is prepared from tallow and ashes, the best ashes for
the purpose being those of the beech and yoke-elm: there are two kinds
of it, the hard soap and the liquid, both of them much used by the
people of Germany, the men, in particular, more than the women.
CHAP. 52.—REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE NECK.
For pains in the neck, the part should be well rubbed with butter or
bears’ grease; and for a stiff neck, with beef suet, a substance which,
in combination with oil, is very useful for the cure of scrofula. For
the painful cramp, attended with inflexibility, to which people give
the name of “opisthotony,” the urine of a she-goat, injected into the
ears, is found very useful; as also a liniment made of the dung of that
animal, mixed with bulbs.
In cases where the nails have been crushed, it is an excellent plan
to attach to them the gall of any kind of animal. Whitlows upon the
fingers should be treated with dried bull’s gall, dissolved in warm
water. Some persons are in the habit of adding sulphur and alum, of
each an equal weight.
CHAP. 53.—REMEDIES FOR COUGH AND FOR SPITTING OF BLOOD.
A wolf’s liver, administered in mulled wine, is a cure for cough; a
bear’s gall also, mixed with honey; the ashes of the tips of a cow’s
horn; or else the saliva of a horse, taken in the drink for three
consecutive days—in which last case the horse will be sure to die,
they say.[2340] A deer’s lights are useful for the same purpose, dried
with the gullet of the animal in the smoke, and then beaten up with
honey, and taken daily as an electuary: the spitter[2341] deer, be it
remarked, is the kind that is the most efficacious for the purpose.
Spitting of blood is cured by taking ashes of burnt deer’s horns, or
else a hare’s rennet in drink, in doses of one-third of a denarius,
with Samian earth and myrtle-wine. The dung of this last animal,
reduced to ashes and taken in the evening, with wine, is good for
coughs that are recurrent at night. The smoke, too, of a hare’s fur,
inhaled, has the effect of bringing off from the lungs such humours as
are difficult to be discharged by expectoration. Purulent ulcerations
of the chest and lungs, and bad breath proceeding from a morbid state
of the lungs, are successfully treated with butter boiled with an equal
quantity of Attic honey till it assumes a reddish hue, a spoonful of
the mixture being taken by the patient every morning: some persons,
however, instead of honey prefer using larch-resin for the purpose. In
cases where there are discharges of blood, cow’s blood, they say, is
good, taken in small quantities with vinegar; but as to bull’s blood,
it would be a rash thing to believe in any such recommendation. For
inveterate spitting of blood, bull-glue is taken, in doses of three
oboli, in warm water.
CHAP. 54. (13.)—REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE STOMACH.
Ulcerations of the stomach are effectually treated with asses’
milk[2342] or cows’ milk. For gnawing pains in that region, beef is
stewed, with vinegar and wine. Fluxes are healed by taking the ashes
of burnt deer’s horns; and discharges of blood by drinking the blood
of a kid just killed, made hot, in doses of three cyathi, with equal
proportions of vinegar and tart wine; or else by taking kid’s rennet,
with twice the quantity of vinegar.
CHAP. 55.—REMEDIES FOR LIVER COMPLAINTS AND FOR ASTHMA.
Liver complaints are cured by taking a wolf’s liver dried, in honied
wine; or by using the dried liver of an ass, with twice the quantity of
rock-parsley and three nuts, the whole beaten up with honey and taken
with the food. The blood, too, of a he-goat is prepared and taken with
the food. For persons suffering from asthma, the most efficient remedy
of all is the blood of wild horses[2343] taken in drink; and next to
that, asses’ milk boiled with bulbs, the whey being the part used, with
the addition of nasturtium steeped in water and tempered with honey, in
the proportion of one cyathus of nasturtium to three semi-sextarii of
whey. The liver or lights of a fox, taken in red wine, or bear’s gall
in water, facilitate the respiration.
CHAP. 56.—REMEDIES FOR PAINS IN THE LOINS.
For pains in the loins and all other affections which require
emollients, frictions with bears’ grease should be used; or else ashes
of stale boars’ dung or swine’s dung should be mixed with wine and
given to the patients. The magicians, too, have added to this branch of
medicine their own fanciful devices. In the first place of all, madness
in he-goats, they say, may be effectually calmed by stroking the beard;
and if the beard is cut off, the goat will never stray to another
flock.
To the above composition they add goats’ dung, and recommend it to be
held in the hollow of the hand, as hot as possible, a greased linen
cloth being placed beneath, and care being taken to hold it in the
right hand if the pain is on the left side, and in the left hand if
the pain is on the right. They recommend also that the dung employed
for this purpose should be taken up on the point of a needle made of
copper. The mode of treatment is, for the patient to hold the mixture
in his hand till the heat is felt to have penetrated to the loins,
after which the hand is rubbed with a pounded leek, and the loins with
the same dung annealed with honey. They prescribe also for the same
malady the testes of a hare, to be eaten by the patient. In cases
of sciatica they are for applying cow-dung warmed upon hot ashes in
leaves: and for pains in the kidneys they recommend a hare’s kidneys
to be swallowed raw, or perhaps boiled, but without letting them be
touched by the teeth. If a person carries about him the pastern-bone of
a hare, he will never be troubled with pains in the bowels, they say.
CHAP. 57.—REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE SPLEEN.
Affections of the spleen are alleviated by taking the gall of a wild
boar or hog in drink; ashes of burnt deer’s horns in vinegar; or, what
is best of all, the dried spleen of an ass, the good effects being sure
to be felt in the course of three days. The first dung voided by an
ass’s foal—a substance known as “polea”[2344] by the people of Syria—is
administered in oxymel for these complaints; a dried horse tongue, too,
is taken in wine, a sovereign remedy which, Cæcilius Bion tells us, he
first heard of when living among the barbarous nations. The milt of a
cow or ox is used in a similar manner; but when it is quite fresh, the
practice is to roast or boil it and take it with the food. For pains
in the liver a topical application is made by bruising twenty heads of
garlick in one sextarius of vinegar, and applying them in a piece of
ox bladder. For the same malady the magicians recommend a calf’s milt,
bought at the price set upon it and without any haggling, that being
an important point, and one that should be religiously observed. This
done, the milt must be cut in two lengthwise, and attached to the
patient’s shirt,[2345] on either side; after which, the patient must
put it on and let the pieces fall at his feet, and must then pick them
up, and dry them in the shade. While this last is doing, the diseased
liver of the patient will gradually contract, they say, and he will
eventually be cured. The lights, too, of a fox are very useful for this
purpose, dried on hot ashes and taken in water; the same, too, with a
kid’s milt, applied to the part affected.
CHAP. 58. (14.)—REMEDIES FOR BOWEL COMPLAINTS.
To arrest looseness of the bowels, deer’s blood is used; the ashes also
of deer’s horns; the liver of a wild boar, taken fresh and without
salt, in wine; a swine’s liver roasted, or that of a he-goat, boiled in
five semisextarii of wine; a hare’s rennet boiled, in quantities the
size of a chick-pea, in wine, or, if there are symptoms of fever, in
water. To this last some persons add nut-galls, while others, again,
content themselves with hare’s blood boiled by itself in milk. Ashes,
too, of burnt horse-dung are taken in water for this purpose; or else
ashes of the part of an old bull’s horn which lies nearest the root,
sprinkled in water; the blood, too, of a he-goat boiled upon charcoal;
or a decoction made from a goat’s hide boiled with the hair on.
For relaxing the bowels a horse’s rennet is used, or else the blood,
marrow, or liver of a she-goat. A similar effect is produced by
applying a wolf’s gall to the navel, with elaterium;[2346] by taking
mares’ milk, goats’ milk with salt and honey, or a she-goat’s gall with
juice of cyclaminos,[2347] and a little alum—in which last case some
prefer adding nitre and water to the mixture. Bull’s gall, too, is used
for a similar purpose, beaten up with wormwood and applied in the form
of a suppository; or butter is taken, in considerable doses.
Cœliac affections and dysentery are cured by taking cow’s liver; ashes
of deer’s horns, a pinch in three fingers swallowed in water; hare’s
rennet, kneaded up in bread, or, if there is any discharge of blood,
taken with polenta;[2348] or else boar’s dung, swine’s dung, or hare’s
dung, reduced to ashes and mixed with mulled wine. Among the remedies,
also, for the cœliac flux and dysentery, veal broth is reckoned, a
remedy very commonly used. If the patient takes asses’ milk for these
complaints, it will be all the better if honey is added; and no less
efficacious for either complaint are the ashes of asses’ dung taken
in wine; or else polea, the substance above[2349]-mentioned. In such
cases, even when attended with a discharge of blood, we find a horse’s
rennet recommended, by some persons known as “hippace;” ashes of burnt
horse-dung; horses’ teeth pounded; and boiled cows’ milk. In cases
of dysentery, it is recommended to add a little honey; and, for the
cure of griping pains, ashes of deer’s horns, bull’s gall mixed with
cummin, or the flesh of a gourd, should be applied to the navel. For
both complaints new cheese made of cows’ milk is used, as an injection;
butter also, in the proportion of four semi-sextarii to two ounces
of turpentine, or else employed with a decoction of mallows or with
oil of roses. Veal-suet or beef-suet is also given, and the marrow of
those animals is boiled with meal, a little wax, and some oil, so as
to form a sort of pottage. This marrow, too, is kneaded up with bread
for a similar purpose; or else goats’ milk is used, boiled down to one
half. In cases, too, where there are gripings in the bowels, wine of
the first running[2350] is administered. For the last-named pains, some
persons are of opinion that it is a sufficient remedy to take a single
dose of hare’s rennet in mulled wine; though others again, who are more
distrustful, are in the habit of applying a liniment to the abdomen,
made of goats’ blood, barley-meal, and resin.
For all defluxions of the bowels it is recommended to apply soft
cheese, and for cœliac affections and dysentery old cheese, powdered,
one cyathus of cheese being taken in three cyathi of ordinary wine.
Goats’ blood is boiled down with the marrow of those animals for the
cure of dysentery; and the cœliac flux is effectually treated with the
roasted liver of a she-goat, or, what is still better, the liver of a
he-goat boiled in astringent wine, and administered in the drink, or
else applied to the navel with oil of myrtle. Some persons boil down
the liver in three sextarii of water to half a sextarius, and then add
rue to it. The milt of a he or she-goat is sometimes roasted for this
purpose, or the suet of a he-goat is incorporated in bread baked upon
the ashes; the fat, too, of a she-goat, taken from the kidneys more
particularly, is used. This last, however, must be taken by itself and
swallowed immediately, being generally recommended to be taken in water
moderately cool. Some persons, too, boil goats’ suet in water, with a
mixture of polenta, cummin, anise, and vinegar; and for the cure of
cœliac affections, they rub the abdomen with a decoction of goats’ dung
and honey.
For both the cœliac flux and dysentery, kid’s rennet is employed,
taken in myrtle wine in pieces the size of a bean, or else kid’s
blood, prepared in the form of a dish known by the name of
“sanguiculus.”[2351] For dysentery an injection is employed, made
of bull glue dissolved in warm water. Flatulency is dispelled by a
decoction of calf’s dung in wine. For intestinal affections deer’s
rennet is highly recommended boiled with beef and lentils, and taken
with the food; hare’s fur, also reduced to ashes and boiled with honey;
or boiled goat’s milk, taken with a small quantity of mallows and some
salt; if rennet is added, the remedy will be all the more effectual.
Goat suet, taken in any kind of broth, is possessed of similar virtues,
care being taken to swallow cold water immediately after. The ashes of
a kid’s thighs are said to be marvellously efficacious for intestinal
hernia; as also hare’s dung, boiled with honey, and taken daily in
pieces the size of a bean; indeed, these remedies are said to have
proved effectual in cases where a cure has been quite despaired of. The
broth too, made from a goat’s head, boiled with the hair on, is highly
recommended.
CHAP. 59.—REMEDIES FOR TENESMUS, TAPEWORM, AND AFFECTIONS OF THE COLON.
The disease called “tenesmus,” or in other words, a frequent and
ineffectual desire to go to stool, is removed by drinking asses’ milk
or cows’ milk. The various kinds of tapeworm[2352] are expelled by
taking the ashes of deer’s horns in drink. The bones which we have
spoken[2353] of as being found in the excrements of the wolf, worn
attached to the arm, are curative of diseases of the colon, provided
they have not been allowed to touch the ground. Polea, too, a substance
already mentioned,[2354] is remarkably useful for this purpose, boiled
in grape juice:[2355] the same too with swine’s dung, powdered and
mixed with cummin, in a decoction of rue. The antler of a young stag,
reduced to ashes and taken in wine, mixed with African snails, crushed
with the shells on, is considered a very useful remedy.
CHAP. 60. (15.)—REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE BLADDER, AND FOR URINARY
CALCULI.
Diseases of the bladder, and the torments attendant upon calculi, are
treated with the urine of a wild boar, or the bladder of that animal
taken as food; both of them being still more efficacious if they have
been thoroughly soaked first. The bladder, when eaten, should be
boiled first, and if the patient is a female, it should be a sow’s
bladder. There are found in the liver of the wild boar certain small
stones,[2356] or what in hardness resemble small stones, of a white
hue, and resembling those found in the liver of the common swine: if
these stones are pounded and taken in wine, they will expel calculi,
it is said. So oppressed is the wild boar by the burden of his
urine,[2357] that if he has not first voided it, he is unable to take
to flight, and suffers himself to be taken as though he were enchained
to the spot. This urine, they say, has a consuming effect upon urinary
calculi. The kidneys of a hare, dried and taken in wine, act as an
expellent upon calculi. We have already[2358] mentioned that in the
gammon of the hog there are certain joint-bones; a decoction made from
them is remarkably useful for urinary affections. The kidneys of an
ass, dried and pounded, and administered in undiluted wine, are a cure
for diseases of the bladder. The excrescences that grow on horses’
legs, taken for forty days in ordinary wine or honied wine, expel
urinary calculi. The ashes, too, of a horse’s hoof, taken in wine or
water, are considered highly useful for this purpose; and the same with
the dung of a she-goat—if a wild goat, all the better—taken in honied
wine: goats’ hair, too, is used, reduced to ashes.
For carbuncles upon the generative organs, the brains and blood of
a wild boar or swine are highly recommended: and for serpiginous
affections of those parts, the liver of those animals is used, burnt
upon juniper wood more particularly, and mixed with papyrus and
arsenic;[2359] the ashes, also, of their dung; ox-gall, kneaded to the
consistency of honey, with Egyptian alum and myrrh, beet-root boiled
in wine being laid upon it; or else beef. Running ulcers of those
parts are treated with veal-suet and marrow, boiled in wine, or with
the gall of a she-goat, mixed with honey and the extracted juice of
the bramble.[2360] In cases where these ulcers are serpiginous, it is
recommended to use goats’ dung with honey or vinegar, or else butter
by itself. Swellings of the testes are reduced by using veal-suet with
nitre, or the dung of the animal boiled in vinegar. The bladder of a
wild boar, eaten roasted, acts as a check upon incontinence of urine; a
similar effect being produced by the ashes of the feet of a wild boar
or swine sprinkled in the drink; the ashes of a sow’s bladder taken in
drink; the bladder or lights of a kid; a hare’s brains taken in wine;
the testes of a male hare grilled; the rennet of that animal taken with
goose-grease and polenta;[2361] or the kidneys of an ass, beaten up and
taken in undiluted wine.
The magicians tell us, that after taking the ashes of a boar’s genitals
in sweet wine, the patient must make water in a dog kennel, and repeat
the following formula—“This I do that I may not wet my bed as a dog
does.” On the other hand, a swine’s bladder, attached to the groin,
facilitates the discharge of the urine, provided it has not already
touched the ground.
CHAP. 61.—REMEDIES FOR DISEASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS AND OF THE
FUNDAMENT.
For diseases of the fundament, a sovereign remedy is bear’s gall, mixed
with the grease; to which some persons are in the habit of adding
litharge and frankincense. Butter, too, is very good, employed with
goose-grease and oil of roses. The proportions in which they are mixed
will be regulated by the circumstances of the case, care being taken to
see that they are of a consistency which admits of their being easily
applied. Bull’s gall upon lint is a remarkably useful remedy, and
has the effect of making chaps of the fundament cicatrize with great
rapidity. Swellings of those parts are treated with veal suet—that from
the loins in particular—mixed with rue. For other affections, goats’
blood is used, with polenta. Goats’ gall too, is employed by itself,
for the cure of condylomata, and sometimes, wolf’s gall, mixed with
wine.
Bears’ blood is curative of inflamed tumours and apostemes upon these
parts in general; as also bulls’ blood, dried and powdered. The best
remedy, however, is considered to be the stone which the wild ass[2362]
voids with his urine, it is said, at the moment he is killed. This
stone, which is in a somewhat liquefied state at first, becomes solid
when it reaches the ground: attached to the thigh, it disperses all
collections of humours and all kinds of suppurations: it is but rarely
found, however, and it is not every wild ass that produces it, but as a
remedy it is held in high esteem. Asses’ urine too, used in combination
with gith, is highly recommended; the ashes of a horse’s hoof,
applied with oil and water; a horse’s blood, that of a stone-horse in
particular; the blood, also, of an ox or cow, or the gall of those
animals. Their flesh too, applied warm, is productive of similar
results; the hoofs reduced to ashes, and taken in water or honey; the
urine of a she-goat; the flesh of a he-goat, boiled in water; the dung
of these animals, boiled with honey; or else a boar’s gall, or swine’s
urine, applied in wool.
Riding on horseback, we well-know, galls and chafes the inside of the
thighs: the best remedy for accidents of this nature is to rub the
parts with the foam which collects at a horse’s mouth. Where there are
swellings in the groin, arising[2363] from ulcers, a cure is effected
by inserting in the sores three horse-hairs, tied with as many knots.
CHAP. 62. (16.)—REMEDIES FOR GOUT AND FOR DISEASES OF THE FEET.
For the cure of gout, bears’ grease is employed, mixed in equal
proportions with bull-suet and wax; some persons add to the
composition, hypocisthis[2364] and nut-galls. Others, again, prefer
he-goat suet, mixed with the dung of a she-goat and saffron, or else
with mustard, or sprigs of ivy pounded and used with perdicium,[2365]
or with flowers of wild cucumber. Cow-dung is also used, with lees of
vinegar. Some persons speak highly in praise of the dung of a calf
which has not begun to graze, or else a bull’s blood, without any other
addition; a fox, also, boiled alive till only the bones are left;
a wolf boiled alive in oil to the consistency of a cerate; he-goat
suet, with an equal proportion of helxine,[2366] and one-third part of
mustard; or ashes of goats’ dung, mixed with axle-grease. They say,
too, that for sciatica, it is an excellent plan to apply this dung
boiling[2367] hot beneath the great toes; and that, for diseases of the
joints, it is highly efficacious to attach bears’ gall or hares’ feet
to the part affected. Gout, they say, may be allayed by the patient
always carrying about with him a hare’s foot, cut off from the animal
alive.
Bears’ grease is a cure for chilblains and all kinds of chaps upon
the feet; with the addition of alum, it is still more efficacious.
The same results are produced by using goat-suet; a horse’s teeth
powdered; the gall of a wild boar or hog; or else the lights of those
animals, applied with their grease; and this, too, where the soles
are blistered, or the feet have been crushed by a substance striking
against them. In cases where the feet have been frozen, ashes of burnt
hare’s fur are used; and for contusions of the feet, the lights of that
animal are applied, sliced or reduced to ashes. Blisters occasioned
by the sun are most effectually treated by using asses’ fat, or else
beef-suet, with oil of roses. Corns, chaps, and callosities of the feet
are cured by the application of wild boars’ dung or swine’s dung, used
fresh, and removed at the end of a couple of days. The pastern-bones
of these animals are also used, reduced to ashes; or else the lights
of a wild boar, swine, or deer. When the feet have been galled by the
shoes, they are rubbed with the urine of an ass, applied with the mud
formed by it upon the ground. Corns are treated with beef-suet and
powdered frankincense; chilblains with burnt leather, that of an old
shoe, in particular; and injuries produced by tight shoes with ashes of
goat-skin, tempered with oil.
The pains attendant upon varicose veins are mitigated by using ashes
of burnt calves’ dung, boiled with lily roots and a little honey: a
composition which is equally good for all kinds of inflammations and
sores that tend to suppurate. It is very useful, also, for gout and
diseases of the joints, when it is the dung of a bull-calf that is used
more particularly. For excoriations of the joints, the gall of a wild
boar or swine is applied, in a warm linen cloth: the dung, also, of a
calf that has not begun to graze; or else goat-dung, boiled in vinegar
with honey. Veal-suet rectifies malformed nails, as also goat-suet,
mixed with sandarach. Warts are removed by applying ashes of burnt
calves’ dung in vinegar, or else the mud formed upon the ground by the
urine of an ass.
CHAP. 63.—REMEDIES FOR EPILEPSY.
In cases of epilepsy, it is a good plan to eat a bear’s testes, or
those of a wild boar, with mares’ milk or water; or else to drink a
wild boar’s urine with honey and vinegar, that being the best which
has been left to dry in the bladder. The testes, also, of swine are
prescribed, dried and beaten up in sows’ milk, the patient abstaining
from wine some days before and after taking the mixture. The lights
of a hare, too, are recommended, salted, and taken with one third of
frankincense, for thirty consecutive days, in white wine: hare’s rennet
also; and asses’ brains, smoked with burning leaves, and administered
in hydromel, in doses of half an ounce per day. An ass’s hoofs are
reduced to ashes, and taken for a month together, in doses of two
spoonfuls; the testes, also, of an ass, salted and mixed with the
drink, asses’ milk or water in particular. The secundines, also, of a
she-ass are recommended, more particularly when it is a male that has
been foaled: placed beneath the nostrils of the patient, when the fits
are likely to come on, this substance will effectually repel them.
There are some persons who recommend the patient to eat the heart
of a black he-ass in the open air with bread, upon the first or
second day of the moon: others, again, prescribe the flesh of that
animal, and others the blood, diluted with vinegar, and taken for
forty days together. Some mix horse-stale for this purpose, with
smithy water fresh from the forge, employing the same mixture for the
cure of delirium. Epilepsy is also treated with mares’ milk, or the
excrescences from a horse’s legs, taken in honey and vinegar. The
magicians highly recommend goats’ flesh, grilled upon a funeral pile;
as also the suet of that animal, boiled with an equal quantity of
bull’s gall, and kept in the gall-bladder; care being taken not to let
it touch the ground, and the patient swallowing it in water, standing
aloft.[2368] The smell arising from a goat’s horns or deer’s antlers,
burnt, efficiently detects the presence of epilepsy.
In cases where persons are suddenly paralyzed, the urine of an ass’s
foal, applied to the body with nard, is very useful, it is said.
CHAP. 64.—REMEDIES FOR JAUNDICE.
For the cure of jaundice, the ashes of a stag’s antlers are employed;
or the blood of an ass’s foal, taken in wine. The first dung,[2369]
too, that has been voided by the foal after its birth, taken in wine,
in pieces the size of a bean, will effect a cure by the end of three
days. The dung of a new-born colt is possessed of a similar efficacy.
CHAP. 65.—REMEDIES FOR BROKEN BONES.
For broken hones, a sovereign remedy is the ashes of the jaw-bone
of a wild boar or swine: boiled bacon, too, tied round the broken
bone, unites it with marvellous rapidity. For fractures of the ribs,
goats’ dung, applied in old wine, is extolled as the grand remedy,
being possessed in a high degree of aperient, extractive, and healing
properties.
CHAP. 66.—REMEDIES FOR FEVERS.
Deer’s flesh, as already[2370] stated, is a febrifuge. Periodical
and recurrent fevers are cured, if we are to believe what the
magicians tell us, by wearing the right eye of a wolf, salted, and
attached as an amulet. There is one kind of fever generally known
as “amphemerine;”[2371] it is to be cured, they say, by the patient
taking three drops of blood from an ass’s ear, and swallowing them in
two semi-sextarii of water. For quartan fever, the magicians recommend
cats’ dung to be attached to the body, with the toe of a horned owl,
and, that the fever may not be recurrent, not to be removed until
the seventh paroxysm is past. Who,[2372] pray, could have ever made
such a discovery as this? And what, too, can be the meaning of this
combination? Why, of all things in the world, was the toe of a horned
owl made choice of?
Other adepts in this art, who are more moderate in their suggestions,
recommend for quartan fever, the salted liver of a cat that has been
killed while the moon was on the wane, to be taken in wine just before
the paroxysms come on. The magicians recommend, too, that the toes of
the patient should be rubbed with the ashes of burnt cow-dung, diluted
with a boy’s urine, and that a hare’s heart should be attached to the
hands; they prescribe, also, hare’s rennet, to be taken in drink just
before the paroxysms come on. New goats’ milk cheese is also given with
honey, the whey being carefully extracted first.
CHAP. 67. (17.)—REMEDIES FOR MELANCHOLY, LETHARGY, AND PHTHISIS.
For patients affected with melancholy,[2373] calves’ dung, boiled in
wine, is a very useful remedy. Persons are aroused from lethargy by
applying to the nostrils the callosities from an ass’s legs steeped
in vinegar, or the fumes of burnt goats’ horns or hair, or by the
application of a wild boar’s liver: a remedy which is also used for
confirmed[2374] drowsiness.
The cure of phthisis is effected by taking a wolf’s liver boiled in
thin wine; the bacon of a sow that has been fed upon herbs; or the
flesh of a she-ass, eaten with the broth: this last mode in particular,
being the one that is employed by the people of Achaia. They say too,
that the smoke of dried cow-dung—that of the animal when grazing, I
mean—is remarkably good for phthisis, inhaled through a reed;[2375] and
find it stated that the tips of cows’ horns are burnt, and administered
with honey, in doses of two spoonfuls, in the form of pills. Goat suet,
many persons say, taken in a pottage of alica,[2376] or melted fresh
with honied wine, in the proportion of one ounce of suet to one cyathus
of wine, is good for cough and phthisis, care being taken to stir the
mixture with a sprig of rue. One author of credit assures us that
before now, a patient whose recovery has been despaired of, has been
restored to health by taking one cyathus of wild goat[2377] suet and an
equal quantity of milk. Some writers, too, have stated that ashes of
burnt swine’s dung are very useful, mixed with raisin wine; as also the
lights of a deer, a spitter[2378] deer in particular, smoke-dried and
beaten up in wine.
CHAP. 68.—REMEDIES FOR DROPSY.
For dropsy, a wild boar’s urine is good, taken in small doses in the
patient’s drink; it is of much greater efficacy, however, when it has
been left to dry in the bladder of the animal. The ashes, too, of burnt
cow-dung, and of bulls’ dung in particular—animals that are reared in
herds, I mean—are highly esteemed. This dung, the name given to which
is “bolbiton,”[2379] is reduced to ashes, and taken in doses of three
spoonfuls to one semisextarius of honied wine; that of the female
animal being used where the patient is a woman, and that of the other
sex in the case of males; a distinction about which the magicians have
made a sort of grand mystery. The dung of a bull-calf is also applied
topically for this disease, and ashes of burnt calves’ dung are taken
with seed of staphylinos,[2380] in equal proportions, in wine. Goats’
blood also is used, with the marrow; but it is generally thought that
the blood of the he-goat is the most efficacious, when the animal has
fed upon lentisk, more particularly.
CHAP. 69.—REMEDIES FOR ERYSIPELAS, AND FOR PURULENT ERUPTIONS.
For erysipelas a liniment of bears’ grease is used, that from the
kidneys in particular; fresh calves’ dung also, or cow-dung; dried
goats’ milk cheese, with leeks; or else the fine scrapings of deer’s
skin, brought off with pumice-stone and beaten up in vinegar. Where
there is redness of the skin attended with itching, the foam from a
horse’s mouth is used, or the hoof, reduced to ashes.
For the cure of purulent[2381] eruptions ashes of burnt asses’ dung are
applied, with butter; and for the removal of swarthy pimples, dried
goats’ milk cheese, steeped in honey and vinegar, is applied in the
bath, no oil being used. Pustules are treated with ashes of swine’s
dung, applied with water, or else ashes of deer’s antlers.
CHAP. 70.—REMEDIES FOR SPRAINS, INDURATIONS, AND BOILS.
For the cure of sprains the following applications are used; wild
boars’ dung or swine’s dung; calves’ dung; wild boars’ foam, used fresh
with vinegar; goats’ dung, applied with honey; and raw beef, used as a
plaster. For swellings, swine’s dung is used, warmed in an earthen pot,
and beaten up with oil. The best emollient for all kinds of indurations
upon the body is wolf’s fat, applied topically. In the case of sores
which are wanted to break, the most effectual plan is to apply cow-dung
warmed in hot ashes, or else goats’ dung boiled in vinegar or wine.
For the cure of boils, beef-suet is applied with salt; but if they
are attended with pain, it is melted with oil, and no salt is used.
Goat-suet is employed in a similar manner.
CHAP. 71.—REMEDIES FOR BURNS. THE METHOD OF TESTING BULL-GLUE; SEVEN
REMEDIES DERIVED FROM IT.
For the treatment of burns, bears’ grease is used, with lily roots;
dried wild boars’ dung also, or swine’s dung; the ashes of burnt
bristles, extracted from plasterers’ brushes, beaten up with grease;
the pastern-bone of an ox, reduced to ashes, and mixed with wax and
bull’s marrow or deer’s marrow; or the dung of a hare. The dung, too,
of a she-goat, they say, will effect a cure without leaving any scars.
The best glue is that prepared from the ears and genitals of the bull,
and there is no better cure in existence for burns. There is nothing,
however, that is more extensively adulterated; which is done by boiling
up all kinds of old skins, and shoes even, for the purpose. The Rhodian
glue is the purest of all, and it is this that painters and physicians
mostly use. The whiter it is, the more highly glue is esteemed: that,
on the other hand, which is black and brittle like wood, is looked upon
as good for nothing.
CHAP. 72.—REMEDIES FOR AFFECTIONS OF THE SINEWS AND FOR CONTUSIONS.
For pains in the sinews, goats’ dung, boiled in vinegar with honey, is
considered one of the most useful remedies, and this even where the
sinew[2382] is threatened with putrefaction. Strains and contusions
are healed with wild boars’ dung, that has been gathered in spring and
dried. A similar method is employed where persons have been dragged by
a chariot or lacerated by the wheels, or have received contusions in
any other way, the application being quite as effectual, should the
dung happen to be fresh. Some think it a better plan, however, to boil
it in vinegar; and if only powdered and taken in vinegar, they vouch
for its good effects where persons are ruptured, wounded internally, or
suffering from the effects of a fall.
Others again, who are of a more scrupulous tendency,[2383] take the
ashes of it in water; and the Emperor Nero, it is said, was in the
habit of refreshing himself with this drink, when he attempted to gain
the public applause at the three-horse chariot races.[2384] Swine’s
dung, it is generally thought, is the next best to that of the goat.
CHAP. 73. (18.)—REMEDIES FOR HÆMORRHAGE.
Hæmorrhage is arrested by applying deer’s rennet with vinegar, hare’s
rennet, hare’s fur reduced to ashes, or ashes of burnt asses’ dung.
The dung, however, of male animals is the most efficacious for this
purpose, being mixed with vinegar, and applied with wool, in all cases
of hæmorrhage. In the same way, too, the ashes of a horse’s head or
thigh, or of burnt calves’ dung, are used with vinegar; the ashes also
of a goat’s horns or dung, with vinegar. But it is the thick blood
that issues from the liver of a he-goat when cut asunder, that is
looked upon as the most efficacious; or else the ashes of the burnt
liver of a goat of either sex, taken in wine or applied to the nostrils
with vinegar. The ashes, too, of a leather wine-bottle—but only when
made of he-goat skin—are used very efficiently with an equal quantity
of resin, for the purpose of stanching blood, and knitting together the
lips of the wound. A kid’s rennet in vinegar, or the thighs of that
animal, reduced to ashes, are said to be productive of a similar result.
CHAP. 74.—REMEDIES FOR ULCERS AND CARCINOMATOUS SORES.
Ulcers upon the legs and thighs are cured by an application of bears’
grease, mixed with red earth: and those of a serpiginous nature by
using wild boar’s gall, with resin and white lead; the jaw-bone of a
wild boar or swine, reduced to ashes; swine’s dung in a dry state;
or goats’ dung, made luke-warm in vinegar. For other kinds of ulcers
butter is used, as a detergent, and as tending to make new flesh;
ashes of deer’s antlers, or deer’s marrow; or else bull’s gall, mixed
with oil of cyprus[2385] or oil of iris. Wounds inflicted with edged
weapons are rubbed with fresh swine’s dung, or with dried swine’s dung,
powdered. When ulcers are phagedænic or fistulous, bull’s gall is
injected, with leek-juice or woman’s milk; or else bull’s blood, dried
and powdered, with the plant cotyledon.[2386]
Carcinomatous sores are treated with hare’s rennet, sprinkled upon
them with an equal proportion of capers in wine; gangrenes, with
bears’ grease, applied with a feather; and ulcers of a serpiginous
nature with the ashes of an ass’s hoofs, powdered upon them. The blood
of the horse corrodes the flesh by virtue of certain septic powers
which it possesses; dried horse-dung, too, reduced to ashes, has a
similar effect. Those kinds of ulcers which are commonly known as
“phagedænic,” are treated with the ashes of a cow’s hide, mixed with
honey. Calves’ flesh, as also cow-dung mixed with honey, prevents
recent wounds from swelling. The ashes of a leg of veal, applied with
woman’s milk, are a cure for sordid ulcers, and the malignant sore
known as “cacoëthes:”[2387] bull-glue, melted, is applied to recent
wounds inflicted with edged weapons, the application being removed
before the end of three days. Dried goats’ milk cheese, applied with
vinegar and honey, acts as a detergent upon ulcers; and goat suet, used
in combination with wax, arrests the spread of serpiginous sores: if
employed with pitch and sulphur, it will effect a thorough cure. The
ashes of a kid’s leg, applied with woman’s milk, have a similar effect
upon malignant ulcers; for the cure, too, of carbuncles, a sow’s brains
are roasted and applied.
CHAP. 75.—REMEDIES FOR THE ITCH.
The itch in man is cured very effectually by using the marrow of an
ass, or the urine of that animal, applied with the mud it has formed
upon the ground. Butter, too, is very good; as also in the case of
beasts of burden, if applied with warmed resin: bull glue is also used,
melted in vinegar, and incorporated with lime; or goat’s gall, mixed
with calcined alum. The eruption called “boa,”[2388] is treated with
cow-dung, a fact to which it is indebted for its name. The itch in dogs
is cured by an application of fresh cows’ blood, which, when quite dry,
is renewed a second time, and is rubbed off the next day with strong
lie-ashes.
CHAP. 76.—METHODS OF EXTRACTING FOREIGN SUBSTANCES WHICH ADHERE TO THE
BODY, AND OF RESTORING SCARS TO THEIR NATURAL COLOUR.
Thorns and similar foreign substances are extracted from the body by
using cats’ dung, or that of she-goats, with wine; the rennet also of
any kind of animal, that of the hare more particularly, with powdered
frankincense and oil, or an equal quantity of mistletoe, or else with
bee-glue.[2389]
Ass suet restores scars of a swarthy hue to their natural colour; and
they are equally effaced by using calf’s gall made warm. Medical men
add myrrh, honey, and saffron, and keep the mixture in a copper box;
some, too, incorporate with it flower of copper.
CHAP. 77. (19.)—REMEDIES FOR FEMALE DISEASES.
Menstruation is promoted by using bull’s gall, in unwashed wool, as
a pessary: Olympias of Thebes adds hyssop and nitre. Ashes, too,
of deer’s horns are taken in drink for the same purpose, and for
derangements of the uterus they are applied topically, as also bull’s
gall, used as a pessary with opium, in the proportion of two oboli.
It is a good plan, too, to use fumigations for the uterus, made
with deer’s hair, burnt. Hinds, they say, when they find themselves
pregnant, are in the habit of swallowing a small stone. This stone,
when found in their excrements, or in the uterus—for it is to be found
there as well—attached to the body as an amulet, is a preventive of
abortion. There are also certain small stones, found in the heart
and uterus of these animals, which are very useful for women during
pregnancy and in travail. As to the kind of pumice-stone which is
similarly found in the uterus of the cow, we have already[2390]
mentioned it when treating of the formation of that animal.
A wolf’s fat, applied externally, acts emolliently upon the uterus, and
the liver of a wolf is very soothing for pains in that organ. It is
found advantageous for women, when near delivery, to eat wolf’s flesh,
or, if they are in travail, to have a person near them who has eaten
it; so much so, indeed, that it will act as a countercharm even to any
noxious spells which may have been laid upon them. In case, however, a
person who has eaten wolf’s flesh should happen to enter the room at
the moment of parturition, dangerous effects will be sure to follow.
The hare, too, is remarkably useful for the complaints of females: the
lights of that animal, dried and taken in drink, are beneficial to
the uterus; the liver, taken in water with Samian earth, acts as an
emmenagogue; and the rennet brings away the after-birth, due care being
taken by the patient not to bathe the day before. Applied in wool as a
pessary, with saffron and leek-juice, this last acts as an expellent
upon the dead fœtus. It is a general opinion that the uterus of a
hare, taken with the food, promotes the conception of male offspring,
and that a similar effect is produced by using the testes and rennet
of that animal. It is thought, too, that a leveret, taken from the
uterus of its dam, is a restorative of fruitfulness to women who are
otherwise past child-bearing. But it is the blood of a hare’s fœtus
that the magicians recommend males to drink: while for young girls they
prescribe nine pellets of hare’s dung, to ensure a durable firmness to
the breasts. For a similar purpose, also, they apply hare’s rennet
with honey; and to prevent hairs from growing again when once removed,
they use a liniment of hare’s blood.
For inflations of the uterus, it is found a good plan to apply wild
boars’ dung or swine’s dung topically with oil: but a still more
effectual remedy is to dry the dung, and sprinkle it, powdered, in the
patient’s drink, even though she should be in a state of pregnancy or
suffering the pains of child-birth. By administering sow’s milk with
honied wine, parturition is facilitated; and if taken by itself it will
promote the secretion of the milk when deficient in nursing women. By
rubbing the breasts of females with sow’s blood they are prevented
from becoming too large. If pains are felt in the breasts, they will
be alleviated by drinking asses’ milk; and the same milk, taken with
honey, has considerable efficacy as an emmenagogue. Stale fat, too,
from the same animal, heals ulcerations of the uterus: applied as a
pessary, in wool, it acts emolliently upon indurations of that organ;
and, applied fresh by itself, or in water when stale, it has all the
virtues of a depilatory.
An ass’s milt, dried and applied in water to the breasts, promotes the
secretion of the milk; and used in the form of a fumigation, it acts
as a corrective upon the uterus. A fumigation made with a burnt ass’s
hoof, placed beneath a woman, accelerates parturition, so much so,
indeed, as to expel the dead fœtus even: hence it is that it should
only be employed in cases of miscarriage, it having a fatal effect
upon the living fœtus. Asses’ dung, applied fresh, has a wonderful
effect, they say, in arresting discharges of blood in females: the
same, too, with the ashes of this dung, which, used as a pessary, are
very good for the uterus. If the skin is rubbed with the foam from
a horse’s mouth for forty days together, before the first hair has
made its appearance, it will effectually prevent the growth thereof:
a decoction, too, made from deer’s antlers is productive of a similar
effect, being all the better if they are used quite fresh. Mares’ milk,
used as an injection, is highly beneficial to the uterus.
Where the fœtus is felt to be dead in the uterus, the lichens or
excrescences from a horse’s legs, taken in fresh, water, will act
as an expellent: an effect produced also by a fumigation made with
the hoofs or dry dung of that animal. Procidence of the uterus is
arrested by using butter, in the form of an injection; and indurations
of that organ are removed by similarly employing ox-gall, with oil
of roses, turpentine being applied externally in wool. They say,
too, that a fumigation, made from ox-dung, acts as a corrective upon
procidence of the uterus, and facilitates parturition; and that
conception is promoted by the use of cows’ milk. It is a well-known
fact that sterility is often entailed by suffering in child-birth; an
evil which may be averted, Olympias of Thebes assures us, by rubbing
the parts, before sexual intercourse, with bull’s gall, serpents’
fat, verdigrease, and honey. In cases, too, where menstruation is too
abundant, the external parts should be sprinkled with a solution of
calf’s gall, the moment before the sexual congress; a method which
acts emolliently also upon indurations of the abdomen. Applied to the
navel as a liniment, it arrests excessive discharges, and is generally
beneficial to the uterus. The proportions generally adopted are—one
denarius of gall, one-third of a denarius of opium, and as much oil
of almonds as may appear to be requisite; the whole being applied in
sheep’s wool. The gall, too, of a bull-calf is beaten up with half the
quantity of honey, and kept in readiness for the treatment of uterine
diseases. If a woman about the time of conception eats roasted veal
with the plant aristolochia,[2391] she will bring forth a male child,
we are assured. Calf’s marrow, boiled in wine and water with the suet,
and applied as a pessary, is good for ulcerations of the uterus; the
same, too, with foxes’ fat and cats’ dung, the last being applied with
resin and oil of roses.
It is considered a remarkably good plan to subject the uterus to
fumigations made with burnt goats’ horns. The blood of the wild goat,
mixed with sea-palm,[2392] acts as a depilatory. The gall of the other
kinds of goat, used as an injection, acts emolliently upon callosities
of the uterus, and ensures conception immediately after menstruation:
it possesses also the virtues of a depilatory, the application being
left for three days upon the flesh after the hair has been removed. The
midwives assure us that she-goats’ urine, taken in drink, and the dung,
applied topically, will arrest uterine discharges, however much in
excess. The membrane in which the kid is enclosed in the uterus, dried
and taken in wine, acts as an expellent upon the after-birth. For
affections of the uterus, it is thought a desirable plan to fumigate
it with burnt kids’ hair; and for discharges of blood, kids’ rennet
is administered in drink, or seed of henbane is applied. According
to Osthanes, if a woman’s loins are rubbed with blood taken from the
ticks upon a black wild bull, she will be inspired with an aversion to
sexual intercourse: she will forget, too, her former love, by taking a
he-goat’s urine in drink, some nard being mixed with it to disguise the
loathsome taste.
CHAP. 78.—REMEDIES FOR THE DISEASES OF INFANTS.
For infants there is nothing more useful than butter,[2393] either by
itself or in combination with honey; for dentition more particularly,
for soreness of the gums, and for ulcerations of the mouth. A wolf’s
tooth, attached to the body, prevents infants from being startled, and
acts as a preservative against the maladies attendant upon dentition;
an effect equally produced by making use of a wolf’s skin. The larger
teeth, also, of a wolf, attached to a horse’s neck, will render him
proof against all weariness, it is said. A hare’s rennet, applied to
the breasts of the nurse, effectually prevents diarrhœa in the infant
suckled by her. An ass’s liver, mixed with a little panax, and dropped
into the mouth of an infant, will preserve it from epilepsy and other
diseases to which infants are liable; this, however, must be done for
forty days, they say. An ass’s skin, too, thrown over infants, renders
them insensible to fear. The first teeth shed by a horse, attached as
an amulet to infants, facilitate dentition, and are better still, when
not allowed to touch the ground. For pains in the spleen, an ox’s milt
is administered in honey, and applied topically; and for running ulcers
it is used as an application, with honey. A calf’s milt, boiled in
wine, is beaten up, and applied to incipient ulcers of the mouth.
The magicians take the brains of a she-goat, and, after passing them
through a gold ring, drop them into the mouth of the infant before
it takes the breast, as a preservative against epilepsy and other
infantile diseases. Goats’ dung, attached to infants in a piece of
cloth, prevents them from being restless, female infants in particular.
By rubbing the gums of infants with goats’ milk or hare’s brains,
dentition is greatly facilitated.
CHAP. 79.—PROVOCATIVES OF SLEEP.
Cato was of opinion that hare’s flesh,[2394] taken as a diet, is
provocative of sleep. It is a vulgar notion, too, that this diet
confers beauty for nine days on those who use it; a silly play[2395]
upon words, no doubt, but a notion which has gained far too extensively
not to have had some real foundation. According to the magicians, the
gall of a she-goat, but only of one that has been sacrificed, applied
to the eyes or placed beneath the pillow, has a narcotic effect. Too
profuse perspiration is checked by rubbing the body with ashes of burnt
goats’ horns mixed with oil of myrtle.
CHAP. 80.—STIMULANTS FOR THE SEXUAL PASSIONS.
Among the aphrodisiacs, we find mentioned, a wild boar’s gall, applied
externally; swine’s marrow, taken inwardly; asses’ fat, mixed with the
grease of a gander and applied as a liniment; the virulent substance
described by Virgil[2396] as distilling from mares when covered; and
the dried testes of a horse, pulverized and mixed with the drink. The
right testicle, also, of an ass, is taken in a proportionate quantity
of wine, or worn attached to the arm in a bracelet; or else the froth
discharged by that animal after covering, collected in a piece of red
cloth and enclosed in silver, as Osthanes informs us. Salpe recommends
the genitals of this animal to be plunged seven times in boiling oil,
and the corresponding parts to be well rubbed therewith. Bialcon[2397]
says that these genitals should be reduced to ashes and taken in drink;
or else the urine that has been voided by a bull immediately after
covering: he recommends, also, that the groin should be well rubbed
with earth moistened with this urine.
Mouse-dung, on the other hand, applied in the form of a liniment, acts
as an antaphrodisiac. The lights of a wild boar or swine, roasted, are
an effectual preservative against drunkenness; they must, however, be
eaten fasting, and upon the same day. The lights of a kid, too, are
productive of the same effect.
CHAP. 81. (20.)—REMARKABLE FACTS RELATIVE TO ANIMALS.
In addition to those already mentioned, there are various other
marvellous facts related, with reference to these animals. When a
horse-shoe becomes detached from the hoof, as often is the case, if
a person takes it up and puts it by, it will act as a remedy for
hiccup the moment he calls to mind the spot where he has placed it. A
wolf’s liver, they say, is similar to a horse’s hoof in appearance;
and a horse, they tell us, if it follows in the track of a wolf, will
burst[2398] asunder beneath its rider. The pastern-bones of swine have
a certain tendency to promote discord, it is said. In cases of fire, if
some of the dung can be brought away from the stalls, both sheep and
oxen may be got out all the more easily, and will make no attempt to
return. The flesh of a he-goat will lose its rank smell, if the animal
has eaten barley-bread, or drunk an infusion of laser[2399] the day on
which it was killed. Meat that has been salted while the moon was on
the wane, will never be attacked by worms. In fact, so great has been
the care taken to omit no possible researches, that a deaf hare, we
find, will grow fat[2400] sooner than one that can hear!
As to the remedies for the diseases of animals—If a beast of burden
voids blood, an injection must be used of swine’s dung mixed with wine.
For the maladies of oxen, a mixture of suet is used with quicksilver,
and wild garlic boiled; the whole beaten up and administered in wine.
The fat, too, of a fox is employed. The liquor of boiled horse-flesh,
administered in their drink, is recommended for the cure of diseased
swine: and, indeed, the maladies of all four-footed beasts may be
effectually treated by boiling a she-goat whole, in her skin, along
with a bramble-frog. Poultry, they say, will never be touched by a fox,
if they have eaten the dried liver of that animal, or if the cock, when
treading the hen, has had a piece of fox’s skin about his neck. The
same property, too, is attributed to a weazel’s gall. The oxen in the
Isle of Cyprus cure themselves of gripings in the abdomen, it is said,
by swallowing[2401] human excrements: the feet, too, of oxen will never
be worn to the quick, if their hoofs are well rubbed with tar before
they begin work. Wolves will never approach a field, if, after one has
been caught and its legs broken and throat cut, the blood is dropped
little by little along the boundaries of the field, and the body buried
on the spot from which it was first dragged. The share, too, with which
the first furrow in the field has been traced in the current year,
should be taken from the plough, and placed upon the hearth of the
Lares, where the family is in the habit of meeting, and left there till
it is consumed: so long as this is in doing, no wolf will attack any
animal in the field.
We will now turn to an examination of those animals which, being
neither tame nor wild, are of a nature peculiar to themselves.
SUMMARY.—Remedies, narratives, and observations, one thousand six
hundred and eighty-two.
ROMAN AUTHORS QUOTED.—M. Varro,[2402] L. Piso,[2403] Fabianus,[2404]
Valerius Antias,[2405] Verrius Flaccus,[2406] Cato the Censor,[2407]
Servius Sulpicius,[2408] Licinius Macer,[2409] Celsus,[2410]
Massurius,[2411] Sextius Niger[2412] who wrote in Greek, Bithus[2413]
of Dyrrhachium, Opilius[2414] the physician, Granius[2415] the
physician.
FOREIGN AUTHORS QUOTED.—Democritus,[2416] Apollonius[2417] who
wrote the “Myrosis,” Miletus,[2418] Artemon,[2419] Sextilius,[2420]
Antæus,[2421] Homer, Theophrastus,[2422] Lysimachus,[2423]
Attalus,[2424] Xenocrates,[2425] Orpheus[2426] who wrote the
“Idiophya,” Archelaüs[2427] who wrote a similar work, Demetrius,[2428]
Sotira,[2429] Laïs,[2430] Elephantis,[2431] Salpe,[2432]
Olympias[2433] of Thebes, Diotimus[2434] of Thebes, Iollas,[2435]
Andreas,[2436] Marcion[2437] of Smyrna, Æschines[2438] the
physician, Hippocrates,[2439] Aristotle,[2440] Metrodorus[2441] of
Scepsos, Icetidas[2442] the physician, Apelles[2443] the physician,
Hesiod,[2444] Dalion,[2445] Cæcilius,[2446] Bion[2447] who wrote “On
Powers,”[2448] Anaxilaüs,[2449] King Juba.[2450]